Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Want to know a great way to share the Lord with children as well as
adults?Then try the Wordless Book.It’s a great way to present the gospel
through colors.You can use it with a
group or one on one with people you meet.Just go through the colors, share the verses, and then seek to pray with
the person to receive Christ.

You can make up your own with construction paper or any other
material you can find.Be creative!Variations of the Wordless Book include
wristbands, etc., all of which may be ordered online.Seek to memorize the verses that go along
with the colors.If you don’t have your
Wordless Book handy then just say the colors instead.Here’s how the Wordless Book
goes:

GREEN:Speaks of the
perfect world God created. (Gen 1:1) In the beginning God created the
heavens and the earth…(Gen 1:31)…God
saw everything that He had made, and…it was very good…

BLACK: Speaks of the darkness of sin.(Rom
3:23) for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…(Rom 6:23) For the
wages of sin is death…

RED: Speaks of the blood of Jesus.(2 Cor 5:15) and He died for all…
(1 John 1:9) If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our
sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

WHITE: Speaks of our sins being forgiven.(Isa
1:18)… your sins…shall be as white as snow…

BLUE: Speaks of the promise of heaven.(John
3:16) For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that
whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting
life.

GOLD: Speaks of the streets of gold God’s children will walk on in
heaven.(Rev 21:21)…And the street of the city was
pure gold…

Then ask the person: “Would you like to receive Jesus in your
heart?”If they are willing then have
them repeat the sinner’s prayer phrase by phrase after you:

“Dear Jesus, I believe in You…and that You died for me…and that you
rose again.I am sorry for my sins.Please forgive me.Come into my heart…and be my Savior.Help me to live for You.And please take me to heaven.Thank you Jesus.I love You.AMEN!”

The Wordless Book is just one method among many to lead people to
Christ.Find what works for you!The important thing is to engage people in
conversation and let people know that the Lord can color their world with the
beauty of His salvation!

Thursday, December 20, 2012

In
Rome, Saturnalia—a holiday in honor of Saturn, the god of agriculture—was
celebrated. Beginning in the week leading up to the winter solstice and
continuing for a full month, Saturnalia was a time to party and live it
up.

In
the early years of Christianity the birth of Jesus was not celebrated. In the
fourth century, church officials decided to bring in the birth of Jesus as a
holiday. Unfortunately, the Bible does not mention date for his birth (a fact
Puritans later pointed out in order to deny the validity of the celebration).
Although some evidence suggests that his birth may have occurred in the spring
(why would shepherds be herding in the middle of winter?), Pope Julius I chose
December 25. It is commonly believed that the church chose this date in an
effort to adopt and absorb the traditions of the pagan Saturnalia festival.
First called the Feast of the Nativity, the custom spread to Egypt by 432 and
to England by the end of the sixth century. By the end of the eighth century,
the celebration of Christmas had spread all the way to Scandinavia. Today, in
the Greek and Russian orthodox churches, Christmas is celebrated 13 days after
the 25th, which is also referred to as the Epiphany or Three Kings Day. This is
the day it is believed that the three wise men finally found Jesus in the
manger.

By
the Middle Ages, Christianity had, for the most part, replaced pagan religion. In
the early 17th century, a wave of religious reform changed the way Christmas
was celebrated in Europe. When Oliver Cromwell and his Puritan forces took over
England in 1645, they vowed to rid England of its depravity and therefore
cancelled Christmas. By popular demand, Charles II was restored to the throne
and, with him, came the return of the popular holiday.

The
pilgrims that came to America in 1620, were even more orthodox in their Puritan
beliefs than Cromwell. As a result, Christmas was not a holiday in early
America. From 1659 to 1681, the celebration of Christmas was actually outlawed
in Boston. Anyone celebrating Christmas was fined five shillings. By contrast,
in the Jamestown settlement, Captain John Smith reported that Christmas was
enjoyed by all.After the American
Revolution, English customs fell out of favor, including Christmas. Christmas
wasn't declared a federal holiday until June 26, 1870.

Some
religious groups and individuals say that since the origin of Christmas is
pagan then a Christian should not celebrate this holiday.Others believe that the pagan roots are so
far in the past that they have no influence on the celebration.But what does the Bible say? (Rom 14:5, 10) One person esteems one day
above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in
his own mind…10 But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt
for your brother?... No matter what you believe let us rejoice that the
Lord has come to be the Savior of the world!And let’s go tell it on the mountain!! (Christmas history
partly adapted from history.com)

Friday, December 14, 2012

THE THREE OMNIS

In Psalm 139 David describes God as
all knowing (omniscience), all present (omnipresent), and all powerful
(omnipotent).We call these the three Omnis!

OMNISCIENCE: God has all
knowledge.(Psa
139:1-6)O Lord, You have searched me
and known me.You know my sitting down
and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. 3 You comprehend my path
and my lying down, And are acquainted with all my ways. 4 For there is not a word
on my tongue, But behold, O Lord, You know it altogether. 5 You have hedged me
behind and before, And laid Your hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too
wonderful for me; It is high, I cannot attain it.

OMNIPRESENCE: God is all
present.He is everywhere at the same
time.(Psa 139:7-12) Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee
from Your presence? 8 If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed
in hell, behold, You are there. 9 If I take the wings of the morning, And dwell
in the uttermost parts of the sea, 10 Even there Your hand shall lead me, And
Your right hand shall hold me. 11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall fall[a]
on me,” Even the night shall be light about me; 12 Indeed, the darkness shall
not hide from You, But the night shines as the day; The darkness and the light
are both alike to You.

OMNIPOTENCE: God is all powerful.(Psa 139:13-16) For You formed my inward
parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. 14 I will praise You, for I am
fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul
knows very well. 15 My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in
secret, And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. 16 Your eyes
saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them.

After David thought about the
character and attributes of God it gave him a sense of accountability to
God.Since God is OMNISCIENT (knows all
things), OMNIPRESENT (everywhere at the same time) and OMNIPOTENT (all powerful),
then he wanted to be in right relation to Him.(Psa 139:23-24) Search me, O God,
and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; 24 And see if there is any
wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting.

We too can be in right relationship
with God because Jesus died on the cross for our sins and reconciled us to
God.And as we serve the Lord we know we
will stumble and fall but we can confess our sins to God and receive His
gracious forgiveness.The three OMNIS
keep me “on-my-knees!”

Giveyour life to the Lord today.He knows all about you and still loves
you!He will never leave you or forsake
you.And He is able to meet every need
in your life…if you’ll let Him!

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

(Psa
139:17) How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum
of them!

Math
is pretty amazing.Think of how many
times you use it per day.You count this
and you measure that.You do this when
you cook, when you pay bills, when you work on a project.God even gave us a calculator of our fingers
(and toes!) to add things up!In the
book of Acts we see that God’s math played out in the birth and formation of the
early church and it becomes a picture of how He works in our lives
today.

ADD:
(Acts 2:41) Then those who gladly
received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were
added to them.The Holy Spirit had
fallen on the believers on the Day of Pentecost.Peter preached his sermon and many received
the Lord.Later in Acts 4:4 it says more
heard the word and believed and the church grew to five thousand
souls.

MULTIPLY:
(Acts 6:7) Then the word of God spread,
and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem…Right after the seven were chosen to serve the
twelve apostles were then free to devote themselves to the word of God and
prayer.Revival broke out as the word of
God spread and now the church is growing exponentially.

SUBTRACTION:
(Acts 5:5) Then Ananias, hearing these
words, fell down and breathed his last. So great fear came upon all those who
heard these things.Ananias and his
wife Sapphira lied to Peter and the Holy Spirit about how much they were giving
as a gift from the sale of their property.This deception was judged by God through death.

DIVISION: (Acts 14:4) But
the multitude of the city was divided: part sided with the Jews, and part with
the apostles.As the church grew
people were divided as to the legitimacy of this new group.Also there was a division between Paul and
Barnabas about taking John Mark on the second missionary journey due to his
flakiness on the first missionary journey.(Acts 15:39-40) Then the
contention became so sharp that they parted from one another. And so Barnabas
took Mark and sailed to Cyprus; 40 but Paul chose Silas and
departed…

So
how do we total it all up?In our lives
there is going to be growth (2 Pet 3:18) and sometimes progress beyond belief
(Mark 4:8).But then there will be a
pruning (John 15:2) and sometimes even a separation (Job 1:21).We love the first two but we must embrace the
other two for a full count of God’s blessings.But remember all things work
together for good (Rom 8:28) and measure up to God’s blessings!We haven’t even reached a fraction of the
understanding of His love for us (Eph 3:17-19).The number one thing is to trust Him (Pro 3:5-6) and never doubt the
angle He is working from (Isa 55:8-9).Remember He numbers the stars and even the hairs of our head (Luke
12:7).It all equals to rich insights of
superb value leading to amazing dividends!

Saturday, December 1, 2012

Decisions.We make them all
the time.Where should we go?What should we do?How should we do it?From large decisions to the little decisions
we make it’s all important because we know that what we decide sets a course of
action that we will be taking.

The first tendency we have is to just jump to a conclusion and
choose whatever because we are desperate and hate having things up in the
air.That can be devastating because we
didn’t wait for more clarity and so we chose poorly.Now we have to live with the consequences of
our rashness and lack of prayer.The
other tendency is to be so afraid of making a decision that we vacillate for an
eternity and never to come to a conclusion even when the Lord confirms it and
makes it so black and white.We want to
be so sure but that produces an uncertainty that can drive a person crazy as
well as the people around him or her.Is
there a better way to choose?

Jesus had to make an important decision.Out of His followers He was going to choose
twelve apostles He would train to be the ones who would carry on His work in His
absence.How would He make His
decision?(Luke 6:12-13) Now it came to pass in those
days that He went out to the mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer
to God. 13 And when it was day, He called His disciples to Himself; and from
them He chose twelve whom He also named apostles.Jesus prayed to His Father to help Him
make this decision.Now if Jesus prayed
for direction, how much more should we be directed by prayer? (James 1:5) If any of you lacks wisdom, let
him ask of God, who gives to all liberally…and it will be given to
him.

When we need to make a decision let’s make time for prayer.(Pro
3:5-7)Trust in the LORD with all your
heart, And lean not on your own understanding; {6} In all your ways acknowledge
Him, And He shall direct your paths. {7} Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear
the LORD and depart from evil.When
we acknowledge the Lord in all things He is faithful to show us the way every
time.

As a result of prayer, Jesus was able to choose His twelve
apostles.Notice how it says when it
was day He called His disciples to Himself.God will light our way for us and lead us in the decisions we must make.
(Isa 42:16)I will bring the blind by a way they did not
know; I will lead them in paths they have not known. I will make darkness light
before them, And crooked places straight. These things I will do for them, And
not forsake them.

Decide now to make your decisions out of devotion.God will unfold His plan for you when you
seek His will and follow His guidance. You don’t have to take a stab in the dark
when the Lord is the Light!

LOUE AND CHERYL MONTEITH

About Me

My wife Cheryl and I are missionaries to missionaries. We encourage servants of the Lord to keep on in their calling and to never give up. 1 Corinthians 15:58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.